Indeed, China-U.S. relations have global implications, and this round of China-US trade talks completed last Friday, like any previous rounds, became the center of attention from the media and observers. What progress has been made is what the media want to find out.

Although some White House officials are playing down the likelihood of the meeting producing a positive outcome, Trump appears to have toned down his intransigence and cracked the door open to a possible deal.

On the whole, APEC should continue to promote an open world economy and oppose protectionism and unilateralism. As a development trend, globalization has different distribution effects among different countries and groups.

Trump’s steps to quit multilateral international obligations, and initiate a trade war against several countries made it clear that to him, the Republican Party was doomed to lose control of the House.

As China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) extended its footprint, launching investment projects along both the ancient Silk Road as well as across the entirety of Eurasia and Africa, Washington saw an urgent need to counter China’s projection of influence. The BUILD Act is America’s belated response to BRI.

China does not need and will not seek a release of pressure on commodity exports by guiding the RMB to unilaterally depreciate sharply. In fact, this is also unfavorable to China in its efforts to attract foreign investment and enhance its import capacity.

It is easy to take sides politically or ideologically, but politicization of trade issues is itself a poison pill that no one will be able to escape. The poison pill as embedded in USMCA is after all poisonous, not only for China, but also the world at large.